Culture

7 bizarre fan theories about romantic movies

There's more to your favorite romantic movies than meet-cutes and tragic misunderstandings.

This Valentine's Day, when you're curled up on the couch celebrating/badmouthing Hallmark's favorite holiday, watch those classic love stories in a different light with the help of some imaginative fan theories.

Sure, you can practically quote Love Actually with your eyes closed, but these conjectures will provide a new perspective that might distract you from the true meaning of Valentine's Day.

7 bizarre fan theories about romantic movies

1. The Breakfast Club

This first fan theory is of the "they were dead the whole time" variety. What if the Saturday detention is actually Purgatory? With the film's focus on suicide and violence, some fans speculate that the kids meet an off-screen demise and are there to repent. Some even go so far as to include Carl, the janitor, as their spiritual guide, dispensing encouragement and tough love in equal measure.

Image: UniversalMovies

2. Love Actually

This theory posits that the characters in Love Actually are pawns in the ultimate game of Good vs. Evil. Mia (Heike Makatsch) dresses as a devil for her company's non-costumed Christmas party, outing herself as a force for evil. The storyline she's in is the only one that ends in heartbreak. Balancing this side of the theory is Rowan Atkinson, an (albeit, awkward) "angel" and a rogue force for good within two different storylines.

Image: UniversalMovies

3. Mary Poppins

Some fans have speculated about a possible connection between the Mary Poppins and Harry Potter universes -- after all, they both describe a magical British land. Fans posit that Mary Poppins was a Ravenclaw who specialized in Muggle Studies and was offered a full-time job as a magical nanny by the Ministry. Though the proposed reason she never appeared in the Potter canon is tragic -- as a Muggle supporter, she would have been executed during Voldemort's first rise to power.

Image: Walt Disney Productions

4. 13 Going on 30

This theory connects one of the fluffiest of rom-coms with one of the nerdiest shows in production today: Doctor Who. Considering the timey-wimeyness of the movie's plot the connection isn't hard to imagine. Plus, how can you resist a TARDIS like the Jenna DreamHouse?

Image: Columbia Pictures

5. High Fidelity

This plausible theory is about the (perfect) casting of John Cuscak in the lead role. Known for his numerous rom-com parts in the ’80s, Cusack was the right choice to play Rob, a man whose past echoes the idealized romances of Cusack's oeuvre. The film explores the idea that it was Rob's own dramatic ideas about relationships that doomed his encounters, dramatic ideas promulgated by Cusack earlier in his career. So Cuasck and Rob? They're the same person. Woah.

Image: Touchstone Pictures

6. Titanic

What if Jack was a time traveller sent back specifically to keep Rose alive? That's the driving question behind this theory, which uses Jack's anachronistic haircut and references (to Lake Wissota, built five years after the Titanic sank, and to a rollercoaster in Santa Monica, built four years after) as evidence to prove his time-hopping ways. Consider: If Rose had jumped off the boat unnoticed near the beginning of the film, the crew would have been forced to stop and search for her -- leading them to miss their appointment with the iceberg, changing history forever.

Image: 20th Century Fox

7. Fight Club

Ostensibly Fight Club isn't a romantic comedy, but redditors suggest it functions very much like one. For starters, the two main love interests are polar opposites: Marla Singer is dirty, sexy, unselfconscious, and emotionally heightened, contrasting forcefully with the Narrator (Edward Norton): conventional, shy, and emotionally deadened. Acting as the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope common to rom coms, Marla opens up and changes his world, bringing out his *ahem* dangerous side. They're separated due to misunderstandings, but are eventually reunited climactically at the end of the movie. So ha! Fincher tricked all you bros into loving a romantic comedy -- think about that the next time you make fun of women for loving this most comforting of genres.

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